Family Awarded Millions in ATV Related Death

Filed in archive Legislation/Environment News on November 4, 2007

The 2003 death of a then 13 year old girl involved in an ATV accident in Florida resulted in an award of over 3 million dollars in a lawsuit filed by the girl's parents against the family that owned the ATV. The lawsuit found the family that owned the adult sized ATV negligent in that they ignored the safety labels on the ATV and the manual that clearly limits the age of riders to 16 and older.

It took a meager three hours for the jury to come to their decision awarding Duane and Cathy Hennarichs the multi-million dollar restitution from Roger and Karen FINA, the owners of the ATV involved in the crash.

The Fina's attorney, John Richards, disagrees with the verdict. He made an attempt to allow the Fina's to escape being responsible for their action. Or lack there-of in this case.

This was a tragic and unfortunate accident that involved good families and good kids," Richards said. "We've always recognized the tremendous loss suffered by the Hennarichs family as well as the effect it's had on everyone involved.

I'm not one for frivolous lawsuits, and I've had more than a few opportunities to file them and win, but this has to come to a head. Parents need to realize that these things (the adult sized ATVs) are NOT toys. Letting kids ride them is dangerous and can result in death. Perhaps this will open the eyes of some ignorant parents out there.